In lithographic printing it is common practice to employ printing blankets each fastened around the periphery of an associated printing cylinder and for the purpose of picking up an ink design or image deposited thereon by an inking roller or master for transfer to an article being printed. It is common practice to fasten a printing blanket on an associated cylinder by fastening each of its opposite end portions to an associated so-called holding bar and each holding bar is then detachably mounted on such cylinder. In many application the printing cylinder employs so-called reel rods or reels associated therewith and each reel has a bar support for quickly attaching and detaching the holding bar relative thereto and various techniques and apparatus have been proposed heretofore for providing such attachment and detachment of the holding bar relative to its bar support on a reel, for example. However, because of the importance of operating printing presses with minimum operating delays it is desirable to provide means for quickly attaching and detaching printing blanket holding bars of the character mentioned on printing cylinders so as to assure operation of an associated printing press with minimum down time.